Description of problem: rexec prompts for username and password regardless of whether or not ~/.netrc exists and/or contains this information. The rexec(3) call in glibc is where the ~/.netrc parsing occurs, but by then rexec(1) will have either prompted for username/password or exited. It's effectively as though the '-n' option was automatically added. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): rsh-0.17-17 How reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. Set up a ~/.netrc with username and password 2. run rexec without -n 3. Actual results: You will be prompted for a username and password Expected results: The username and password for ~/.netrc are used Additional info: It appears the prompting was added in response to Bug#4328. The real bug is/was that glibc's rexec(3) doesn't prompt for username/password in the event that ~/.netrc doesn't supply them. AFAICT all other libcs do prompt if needed. At any rate rexec is now broken according to it's own docs.
Probably the simplest solution is to duplicate ruserpass.c from glibc-<version>/inet/ or from ftp (netkit-ftp). This way rexec can process an existing ~/.netrc and then prompt for username/password if needed before calling rexec(3). This is how our ftp(1) does it.
Created attachment 105217 [details] Patch to read/parse ~/.netrc before prompting for username/passwd I've verified the patch prevents the prompt when .netrc is populated and that -n still causes rexec to prompt.
Correction to initial comments: rexec prompts for password but not username (unless -n option specified).
Thanks Dave, fixed version will soon appear in errata
An errata has been issued which should help the problem described in this bug report. This report is therefore being closed with a resolution of ERRATA. For more information on the solution and/or where to find the updated files, please follow the link below. You may reopen this bug report if the solution does not work for you. http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHEA-2004-605.html
The path netkit-rsh-0.17-rexec-netrc.patch is not in RHEL3 yet. I think we still have development period for U5. I will add it to this branch next week.